Jack Hardaway
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We are being pursued.
Relentless.
Tenacious.
Pursuit.
The Shepherd is following us.
Nothing stops the shepherd, nothing, even death, even the grave is crushed, setting the captives free.
The Shepherd.
Relentless.
Tenacious.
We are pursued.
This is one of the great images of God, the Shepherd. Fierce, tender, in pursuit, single minded in purpose, the sheep will live, the sheep will eat and drink, the sheep will be found, the sheep will be guided.
The Shepherd, presiding over the people, over the heavens and the earth, striding through the cosmos, charging the gates of hell, bursting from the tomb…giving life, the Shepherd of life itself.
We hear about Shepherds in the readings today. False Shepherds in Jeremiah, Sheep without a shepherd in Mark, and then there is the 23rd psalm.
There are three versions of the 23rd psalm in the Prayer Book.
There is the King James Version, the one we most often hear at funerals.
There is the contemporary version from the Psalter.
Then there is the oldest version, my favorite, from an earlier English translation of the Bible called The Great Bible, the work of Miles Coverdale in 1535. It was used in previous Prayer Book. That is what we have in the bulletin today, what we said together.
It is a little different, it catches our attention.
The 23rd Psalm embodies the heart of this parish, the window above the altar, the shepherd, the image chosen for Grace, a picture of the One to whom we belong.
That image is etched, branded into the memory of everyone who has belonged to this parish, the image of Grace, The Shepherd, finding the lost sheep.
The image in the psalm is of relentless pursuit. It is more than just being followed.
We are pursued by life itself. Chased after, that we may live. Hunted down.
Goodness pursues us.
Tender mercy pursues us.
Loving-kindness pursues us.
God keeps us alive. That is the message. God is life itself.
The deeper we dig the hole, the farther the mercy reaches out to bring us home, there is no escape, there is only the Shepherd.
We become what we worship. It is an old truth. An old adage.
We worship the God who is the shepherd of life, who is the host of life, providing, protecting, guiding, attending, pursuing, whose love holds us with such strength that even death cannot break that bond.
What are we becoming like?
That tells us something about what holds our attention.
Are we holding others in life? Shepherding, hosting, providing, filling the cup, never quitting on them?
God is like that. God pursues us that we will do likewise.
The goodness that makes us good.
The mercy that makes us merciful.
The Shepherd that makes us shepherds.